Extra/ordinary design from Croatia
Over the past two years, a team from the Royal College of Art’s Helen Hamlyn Centre has teamed up with Croatian design organisations to help bodies working with socially-marginalised groups in the country through the power of design.
Led by the HHC’s Julia Cassim and featuring members from the Croatian Designers Organisation and the School of Design at the University of Zagreb, the team has worked with organisations such as ZVONO, a creative centre for young people with learning difficulties.
Workshops were held, which aimed to use co-design to transform the organisations. More than 60 Croatian designers volunteered their skills for the initiative, and were briefed to co-design and produce a sustainable range of products that would help strengthen the different organisations’ economic self-sufficiency.
Now work created during the workshops is going on show at the British Council’s London offices as part of the six-month Welcome Croatia Festival, which celebrates Croatia’s accession to the European Union this year.
This includes a diverse range of products, each with its own brand identity, ranging from dipped ceramic lamps, painted stools and wooden door-stops to textile and printed goods and even a signature formal clothing collection.
Curated by Cassim, along with Mirna Reinprecht of the Croatian Designers Association and Sanja Bencetic of the School of Design at the University of Zagreb, the exhibition has been designed by Gero Grundmann of Studio Bec.
The UK/Croatia Extra/ordinary Design Workshops exhibition runs until 27 January at British Council Gallery, 10 Spring Gardens, London SW1A.
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